NASA releases an official tabletop adventure that's brave enough to ask: what would Earth be like if a dragon kidnapped a bunch of D&D wizards and stole the Hubble Space Telescope

GamesRPGDungeons & DragonsNASA releases an official tabletop adventure that’s brave enough to ask: what would Earth be like if a dragon kidnapped a bunch of D&D wizards and stole the Hubble Space TelescopeWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: NASA)

An image of a large dragon flying towards the Hubble Space Telescope.

I am pleased beyond belief that the sentence: “There is an official NASA D&D adventure that’s just an Isekai anime with scientists” is verifiably true. TitledThe Lost Universe, this system-agnostic adventure is free to download and most certainly worth a read.

Here’s the central thrust: a dragon kidnapped a bunch of alien wizards and forced them to rip the Hubble Telescope out of our reality. Yes, really.

“Eirik linked to the Hubble Space Telescope after learning of its observations that have propelled understanding of black holes and dark energy (similar to the energy of the vacuum) on Earth … this drew the attention of a young dragon, Isilias, who stole the spell Eirik created, as well as Eirik himself and his fellow researchers, in order to steal Hubble itself so Isilias alone would possess its knowledge.”

Rather than simply confusing a bunch of NASA scientists on Earth, this actually caused the Hubble to be removed from reality entirely. The adventure depicts a group of faintly-baffled researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland: “A subtle ache lives in your mind, insisting that you’re forgetting something, but it’s always just out of reach. The more you try to remember, the worse the pain gets.” Then you all black out and wake up as D&D characters.

It sounds like I’m poking fun here—but it’s the exact kind of earnest silliness that makes for a good game of tabletop. It’s also reminiscent of the classicD&D cartoonfrom the 80s, wherein a group of teenagers are magically transported to a fantasy land at the behest of a disturbing-looking dungeon master.

While the game is technically system-agnostic, the adventure itself recommends a “party of 4-7 level 7-10 characters”. Though if we’re going with the adventure’s suggested protagonist (a young green dragon from D&D 5e) a party of level 10 characters would make mincemeat of Isilias in a few rounds. There’s ultimately quite a bit of homebrew the DM will need to bring in, in order to this to make it all click with their table.

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